Spooky Study

With Halloween approaching jack-o-lanterns, witches, monsters and ghosts have been making an appearance in oral tales at lunch. The hubbub has caused a rash of curiosity about all things spooky, creepy, and silly.

Following this wisp of thought, we began to chart theme specific activities for each area of the room. This is an ongoing project and we expect the children to add ideas as inspiration hits. Below you will find the main areas of the classroom, each with ideas for connecting them to our Halloween study.

The Store

webs

spooky toys

Halloween pictures

potions

creepy animals

The House

spooky house

cob webs

ghosts

dress in costumes

The Office

Halloween office

books of spooky stuff

fortune-teller

decorating center

make nightmares

The Workshop

make spooky toys

haunted house

build candy collectors

Fancy Nancy Restaurant

spooky hot dogs

cauldron

witchie stews

make icky menus

The Studio

paint bats

make slime

make scary faces

have a laboratory

make potions

make costumes

The first project of the bunch included plastering the doors with a multitude of jack-o-lanterns.

Next came the decision to enclose the loft, or “The House”, in spider webs.

Both of these projects required fine motor skill coordination, planning, and cooperating. Language skills were bolstered while we discussed shapes, strategies for creating shapes, ideas for web placement, and conflict resolution. Polite words were practiced when waiting to talk to someone else, asking for help from a teacher or friend and when explaining/listening to others’ visions.

So far the other classroom areas are a bit low on Halloween cheer, but we’ll just have to see what comes tomorrow. Sparks of ideas are flying everywhere right now, so it could be anything…